Arturo Hilario
El Observador
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is one of the most popular and timeless stories that takes an incredible dire situation and uses the power of community, trust and unconditional love to transform the situation from one of curses and darkness to one of joy, growth and ultimately, transformation for most of the characters involved.
Its compelling story and musical structure made it a remarkably good candidate to adapt into a stage production, which eventually premiered in 1994 to critical acclaim. Now, the production is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new restaging that brings in new elements, such as dazzling new costumes, choreography, highly technical sets and slight changes to the script.
The iconic music also returns, featuring Alan Menken’s Academy Award-winning score, which include the crowd favorite “Be Our Guest”, plus songs written especially for the stage by Alan Menken and Tim Rice (including “If I Can’t Love Her” and “A Change In Me”).
Venezuelan actor Javier Ignacio plays Cogsworth on the show, having been with the tour for the past year. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with him about the experience of working on Beauty and the Beast so far, his personal story of immigration and journey to the performing arts, as well as his transformation into the character of Cogsworth, from the physical costume and mannerisms, to how he personally connects with the character and found his humanity.
He also touches on why the stage adaptation celebrating its 30th anniversary continues to inspire and stay relevant as a universal story that connects generations and cultures with its themes and iconic music.
For more information and tickets, please visit broadwaysanjose.com.
What was your path to this stage and what inspired you to get into the performing arts?
I’ll take you back to my young, young childhood. I was born in Venezuela. My grandfather was a performer on the radio. He was a singer-songwriter. His name is Juan de la Villa, and so I grew up in a very musical family. My mom studied opera and then became a speech therapist. So there was always that voice pedagogy side as well in the family.
She was my voice teacher growing up but growing up, it was mostly just about singing around the house. It really wasn’t until I moved to the States at the age of 10 that I was exposed to musical theater. I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and in high school I auditioned for my first musical my freshman year of high school and became obsessed with just the art of storytelling with singing and dancing and being on stage.
And I looked up if there were any summer opportunities, things that I could do in theater. And there’s a really amazing kind of stepping stone for a lot of Broadway artists, a theater called Music Theater Wichita and a lot of Broadway artists and people in our industry have gone through there, and how lucky was I to get to have that in my hometown.
So I started as an apprentice working backstage and eventually made my way to the stage. But as I was just starting to fall in love with theater and get to understand that this is something people did for a living, I actually— full circle moment— the tour of Beauty and the Beast came to my hometown, and I got to see the Disney production, I believe it was probably in 2001 or 2002 that I got to see it tour through my city.
And I just fell in love with just the spectacle of it all, the magic, the Disney magic of it all, the grandeur of telling this story and that it was taking place on stage right in front of me. So now fast forward to all these years later, I went to school for musical theater. I performed all over the country. This is now my third national tour and I have a couple of Broadway credits under my belt and Off-Broadway credits. But getting to do this and take this around the country is so incredibly special. It just, it takes me back to seeing the film for the first time 1991 in Venezuela with my grandmother in Spanish.
So there’s, there’s so much to be proud of, you know, the Disney kid in me that’s getting to take it around the country and share it with a new generation. But also, like, there’s something so special about being an immigrant and having had my first exposure to this in a different language, you know, and now getting to take it around the country and meet fellow immigrants around the world that are coming to see it because they love it so much. And I even had someone recently in San Francisco who at the stage door said, “I think I’m watching this for the first time in English because I grew up with these films in another language.”
And so the message translates and the love for these themes is something everyone can relate to. But it’s also so, so cool to see how much this film means to people all over the world.
What is it like stepping into this costume and becoming Cogsworth? What did you bring to him and try to kind of show to the audience about this character?
I think my journey with him was in many ways trying to find in which ways we’re alike and discovering that within myself.
Having had the opportunity to work with Linda Woolverton, who wrote the original film and then the Broadway adaptation, and having conversations with her about, “In what ways am I like Cogsworth?” And I have found, you know, maybe a little bit more than I wanted, such as my need and my desire to keep things organized.
“But getting to do this and take this around the country is so incredibly special. It just, it takes me back to seeing the film for the first time 1991 in Venezuela with my grandmother in Spanish.”
-Javier Ignacio
I’m such a planner and I have a hard time when plans change, but I am in many ways learning to adapt, you know, you kind of have to, but the other thing in which I really have been able to connect is something that I had never thought about.
One of the themes of the show is the theme of friendship and supporting each other despite our differences and the partnership that he has both with Lumiere, but then the rest of the house objects, you know, these people are going through the hardest thing that they could have ever imagined, being a part of this curse, and somehow they are getting each other through it all.
And I’m incredibly close to my family, and especially my brother. And so, I tend to think of Lumiere as my brother in the show, and that connection, that partnership. So, I think those are the things that I lean on. And another thing that I have connected with it, I think as an immigrant, there has always been a sense of, “You have to be perfect, you have to follow the rules,” or else you may not have the luxury that other people might have. And so I think there is that that sense of specificity and control that maybe perhaps drives Cogsworth and his need to follow the rules. You know, I think that that’s certainly something that I connect with in his journey.
The costume is also new, choosing to use green colors instead of the wood and brown?
The inspiration for Cogsworth this time around [was] of making Cogsworth out of malachite, to sort of enhance the fact that he is the head of the household. We need to make him stand out. He is very fancy and, dresses that way and takes pride in what he does.
And so to take him out of the brown tones of the rest of the staff and bring a little bit of color, bring a little bit of this vibrant green is pretty awesome. And of course, the original costume designer, Annabel Ward, who came back and revisited these designs, has done an amazing job of in a way kind of modernizing them and bringing them to a new audience.
What’s really amazing is that we have an incredible crew that travels with us, our department heads. And in every city, we of course hire local union members to be part of the stage crew and the dressers and everyone. And so I have a dresser that gets me in and out of the box, my Cosworth costume, and we also have an amazing physical therapist that travels with us to help us work through those little things that sort of develop when you are playing an object, when you’re having to hold your arm up in a certain way or carry two 7-pound candelabras that you have to hold up and dance with. Your body tends to get tight and sore in many different ways. So we have also an amazing support team behind us that keeps us ready to go on stage.
I wanted to go back to something you had talked about earlier about speaking to an audience members who said it might have been the first time they heard Beauty and the Beast in English. You being Latino, being part of the LGBTQ community, how do you feel about being an inspiration to other Latinos who might see you on stage and feel representation?
There is such a sense of pride and also responsibility that I feel. I don’t think as a kid I saw a lot of people that looked like me on stage doing musical theater. It’s just not something that in growing up was such a large part of our culture. I think maybe now there’s a bit more support.
I know there are certainly shows that have then traveled to Spain and Argentina and Mexico. There was a major production of Beauty and the Beast that happened in Mexico for many years after the original Broadway production.
But growing up, it wasn’t something that I got to see. And so, I take a lot of pride in being given that opportunity to represent and to inspire the next generation of Latin artists that love this line of work, that feel inclined to go into musical theater and to be actors or dancers or singers on stage. And I feel really lucky to be getting to do it at this level.
And is there anything else that you’d like to leave us with?
I think something that I love to remind people is that this is a story that is a multi-generational story, multicultural. I think anyone can connect with it. And what’s really exciting is not just seeing kids in our audience dress up, but to see full full-grown adults that come as Belle and the Beast on their date night. They really make something out of it.
To see grandparents and kids coming together, full families, it’s really, really cool to see and to talk to them afterwards and to hear their perspective and how sometimes they’re moved to tears. Sometimes they’re just so excited to say, “Wow, you guys are so funny. Thank you for an amazing night, it’s unforgettable.” So I always love to share that it is a night to be shared by all.
